Samuel Belknap III, a graduate student of the University of Maine, has discovered dog’s bones dating back 9,400 years ago, from a pile of human excrement. This was reported by International news sites, January 19, 2011.

Belknap and his team had performed DNA analysis and carbon dating test, which identified the bone fragment as that of a dog’s, and determined the dog’s age to be 9,400 years old. The bone fragment has apparently undergone the process of digestion because of its characteristic orange color. The fact that it is also found in human excrement confirms the assumption.

Based on these findings, Belknap said that dogs may not have been “used only for security and hunting but were eaten as well.” In other countries, even today, dogs are considered as meat sources. Hence, it is no wonder that thousands of years ago, they may have bred them as food sources too.

Belknap’s paper is accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.